Max and Paul's Excellent Adventure

Caerphilly We caught a train to Caerphilly to meet up with Max's cousin, Kaye, who hadn't seen each other for over 50 years. It was great for Max to have another family meet-up. Max with Kaye's doggy, Ben. The Welsh part of the family reunion is complete with Ben. Cousin Kaye, Second cousin Glenys, and Max. (Max: This was taken outside my (and Kaye's) grandparents' house in Bargoed. They'd had it built and I have fond memories of part of my childhood there.) Llancaiach Fawr Manor - Nelson  Kaye was kind enough to take us to the Llancaiach Fawr Manor which is a Tudor manor house in the heart of the Rhymney Valley in South Wales. The semi-fortified house was built on the site of an earlier medieval structure, either on top of the previous dwelling or possibly incorporated within the eastern end of that building.  The Manor is considered to be one of the most important gentry houses to have survived from the 16th and 17th century period. It was home to a magistrate...

The good thing about the location of the house is that it's walking distance to Cardiff central from where we can catch trains to other parts of southern Wales. Good 'ol Google maps was there to help us find the shortest way to walk into town. Next time we'll see if we can ask Google to re-route the map to go around drug central. Even during the day it was a bit intimidating, seeing that part of the community congregating to exchange pleasantries amongst other things. The drug culture is probably no worse than in other major cities but we're staying in the not-so-nicest of areas where we have gripped our belongings a little tighter than usual.  Once we got into town it was fine and subsequent trips were ok, too, once we established the best route.  The Cardiff Castle is the main attraction in town. Down near Cardiff Bay Cardiff Millennium Centre Interesting what one finds on a park bench and respective commemorative plaque.  I would have liked Bob.   Bridgend We deci...

 After Daniel saw us off at the station, we caught the local underground train which connected us to the two-hour overland train to Cardiff, the capital of Wales. After leaving the train station and recognising the square as being a regular recent Doctor Who location, we caught the local bus to the house sit. As the bus got closer to the destination, we were wondering where we'd come. The land of "How Green Was My Valley"?.  Um... no. Definitely elsewhere. We arrived in Splott, pronounced as you see it. (In Welsh, it's Sblot.) Sprawling terrace houses as far as the eye can see with little sign of life. Below is a pic of our accommodation this time around.  They're called two up two downs as they have two rooms upstairs and two rooms downstairs.  Has anyone seen ' The Four Yorkshiremen ' sketch done by the Monty Python crew? Our place is the yellow bit. Both cats seem to have some neurotic issues and, after reading the care instructions (Chapters 1, 2 and 3...

Back to London to stay at Daniel and Ellen's while they do a doggy sit in Sevenoaks. Getting off the train at a main city train station is like getting off a plane at an airport. It was a bit of a culture shock after a few weeks in the countryside as the stream of people coming through the station was unrelenting. Having said that, I only have admiration for the train system especially the underground network. No matter where you are in London, you only have a 5 minute maximum wait period for a train. As always, it was good to catch up with our boy and his girl once thay returned to London.  Daniel's long working hours make it a challenge to spend as much time as we'd like with him but them's the breaks. There were two things I wanted to do while we spent time here before our next sit.  I wanted to go to (1) the 'War of the Worlds' immersive experience and (2), the British Museum. The 'War of the Worlds' show was an adaptation from Jeff Wayne's music...